In fact, it’s easily arguable that this overall approach is what ultimately took a lot of the fun out of competing entirely. If you only want one thing, and you ‘fail’ at that thing… it’s hard to not feel like, well, a
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did remember to nab pics of our new stirrup leathers tho — Henri de Rivel nylon lined in chocolate, paid ~$55 at Dover.
first impressions: they feel great under the leg — flat, smooth, and unobtrusively easy to put my leg where i want it |
So with Doozy, I’m really trying to do things a little differently. Tho, human nature being what it is, it’s also been easy to subconsciously slide into old mentalities and thought processes.
Like when Doozy finished the season so well last year, and was out and about starting to
jump bigger things in clinics, it felt natural to assume that, well, we’d probably move up to BN at the beginning of this year’s season — and maybe even finish the year at N.
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| it’s a tougher leather with exposed nylon backing, compared to a very soft leather encasing a nylon core on pricier styles |
It seemed like a reasonable idea at the time — bc doesn’t it always?? But obviously we all know by now how very vastly differently this year started out for us. And real talk? I’m kinda a little grateful for the interruption and reminder to think through what it is I really want.
Bc…. What I want is to have fun at horse shows, feel confident about what we’re doing, and not feel like I’m betting quite so heavily on the good will and nature of my horse to carry us through sketchier moments.
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i loved these Passiers and perhaps 5 years is a reasonable life span for that style (paid ~$85 new on ebay in 2020), but they are well and truly dead. maybe the tougher HDR leathers will last longer?
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In fact, reading back through
this post of Charlie’s second season opener (which I linked to in an unrelated post a couple weeks ago) really drove home that… While that experience was well and fine for that era in my riding life, I’m really kinda trying to go for something, erm,
a little different now haha.
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| anything for Ms Princess, who had to have another saddle check (just 6 weeks after the last flocking) bc we are having a recurring problem likely related to our codependent crookedness… her back looked all clear after our lesson tho! |
And. Obviously, Doozy is
not Charlie. I got lucky with him in
so many ways, I got away with a lot haha. Not quite sure the results would be the same with this funny little firecracker mare lol.
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| anyway, the rest of the pics are from hacking out. can you believe this is AUGUST grass??? unreal |
She is an exciting horse tho, and I’m excited with the progress we’re making on this new and different approach — this rigorous dogged pursuit of…. wait for it…
the fundamentals.
We finally had another lesson with event trainer Woodge this week (recall she was traveling for her own competition last week and so we snuck in a reunion with dressage trainer C), yet another session of “remedial trotting.” And guys, Doozy was brilliant omg <3
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| doozy likes marching me straight up to these clusters of mouth-height tall grasses lol |
No media, obvi, so you’ll have to take my word for it. Which, natch, is up to you haha. It’s hard to go from earning 50% on a dressage test to swearing up and down that a horse is fantastic on the flat, but here we are lol.
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| woods are still full of (suspicious) ferns! they cut a new high trail too — on soft loam vs the rocky stream bottom, so we actually got to do a few little log jompies omg, and doozy was super chill about them! |
We stayed almost exclusively on a 20m circle for the full lesson, and only ever did sustained walking and trotting (a few bits of canter snuck in, but only temporarily).
The circle had jump standards with poles at 3o’clock and 9o’clock (ie bisecting the circle, and we essentially carved a horse-width sized track into the footing. Noting: the width of our track should be equally narrow all the way around, not just where the poles were.
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| i love how her hacking confidence keeps growing <3 <3 |
The focus was all about posture — both mine and Doozy’s — while maintaining inside bend and outside shoulder control. Which actually felt like a really
really complementary next lesson after riding with Trainer C last week. Like we kinda put the ‘yin’ and the ‘yang’ together finally.
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| happy marching across hill and dale, away from and back toward home! |
And Doozy was so good — was able to have moments where she really felt on the aids, stable, balanced, could do thoughtful balanced serpentine changes of direction inside the 20m circle at trot, could shift down to a 15m circle over just one of the pole exercises while Woodge adjusted the other, and basically just settled into trotting over the various pole configurations like it’s easy and boring. Good girl!
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| oooooh the butterfly bush is blooming again! |
The pole configurations included going from single poles at each end, to sets of two poles (at trotting distance), to three poles (still trotting), to one side actually having a little cross rail — which was SUPER EXCITING the first time, but boring thereafter — then back to finishing with four trot poles on each end.
Not groundbreaking stuff, guys. But it was incredible to feel the difference in how easy it was for me to sit tall and still with long legs, shoulders back, and hands together and down when Doozy was so secure in her own balance and posture. It’s really clear how much we feed off each other’s instability in the chaos lol.
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| i love riding out with friends, but sometimes going solo is nicer for letting doozy power walk to her heart’s content |
And funny enough, more than once (
more than three times, if we’re being honest) Woodge asked what I did differently in a moment of softness… and all I could do was just shrug like, “I dunno, Doozy just got it?” Again it really felt like the pieces we’ve been working on since riding with Trainer C were super complementary to the approach Woodge is taking with us, which may or may not inform my scheduling choices for the foreseeable future.
Regardless, and kinda back to my main earlier point — It’s exciting to see where Doozy is right now. And liberating in a way to remind myself that there’s no clock, there’s no rush. The reward is in the positive experience, the horse that “gets it.”
And it’s giving me an entirely new and unfamiliar — but GOOD — kind of rush when I click “submit payment” on entry forms. Who knew that was even an option LOL :D
I have 10 year old Wow leathers. They are worn but still great. I bought a set of cheaper leathers for Quaid’s saddle. Not nearly as happy with them. But man, the Wows are expensive now.
ReplyDeleteI will say it forever, training dressage and showing dressage are two very different beasts.
I too have reached a spot where it’s not about going up the levels as much as it’s having a good experience and fun. I have a friend who always goes to shows. Freaks out at the show and her horse responds. Gets miserable and leaves early, even if her results are good. . We’re all like ‘why are you doing this to yourself?’ It’s a lot of money to spend just to be in a constant state of nerves and misery. But it’s her journey.
As someone who has often freaked out about shows, been a nervous miserable wreck, and far too often scratched or withdrew early as a result… I totally get your friend’s conundrum. It turns out this whole thing with the horses and the judging is hard on more than a few emotional, physical and psychological levels…. Not even counting the money / resources consumed. I wish there was a simple answer to all that, lord knows it’s been my own personal grail for the last few years to dig back out of that hole …
DeleteI've been doing a few dressage outings this summer (FADS, they have a ton of cheap schooling show outings), working on my nerves in a competition-adjacent environment. It's kind of a slog, but repetition builds comfort, comfort leads to confidence, etc. We still legitimately suck (Training 1 & 3, scores in the high fifties, low sixties -- at schooling shows, so yeah. We suck.) by any yardstick, but also judge is not scoring "Rider Respiration Frequency" or "Amount of Rider Tears" or even "Rider Tension"... and since those are the things I'm really working on, well, the scores are gonna be craptacular because the judge wants stuff like balanced transitions and round-circles-with-bending. I'm getting to where I can kinda breathe normally in the arena, which is what I am working on. Each time we go out, it's kinda-okay-er. We hit the sixties this weekend. (We started in the lower half of the 50's and even I could tell it was a shitshow. Now it's not as much of a shitshow though there are definitely still elements of shit and show in the mix. LOL.)
ReplyDeleteOooooh congrats on seeing the improvement in scores !! And for just getting out there and doing the thing even when the scores weren’t really reflecting the level of work and commitment. At some point I’d really love to get results that look like “yea she totally has her shit together,” but eh. Sometimes we take what we get!!
DeleteFeeding off each other's chaos... So true... I don't remember if I shared, but JV pointed out that it's hard to keep my hands steady when BB isn't applying back pressure to them. Push him forward into the contact and miraculously my hands quiet.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you're able to soak up these moments with the red mare!
It’s crazy how much of riding really is a two way street… like academically I know I need to create the stability and give doozy a consistent space to meet me, vs sorta kinda chasing her around with the aids while we corkscrew further and further into chaos… but something definitely seemed to click for us in this ride about how nice it is when everything settles into one comfortable place!
DeleteSounds like a great riding lesson with a lot of great insights garnered on your part. I love how you keep enjoying, growing and learning with your horse, even if you don't always end up exactly where you had hoped. Those trail riding woods look lovely, by the way!
ReplyDeleteThe woods around us are so nice, we are super lucky to have access! And yea it’s honestly super exciting to be in what feels like a growing and learning phase with horses again, after spending actual years protecting an increasingly fragile Charlie (tho obvi I wouldn’t give that experience up for anything either !)
DeleteOh, what a treasure to find two coaches whose approaches work together for you! In my experience, swapping between trainers has often led to toes getting stepped on and added confusion.
ReplyDeleteYea there definitely seems to be issues with territorialism among some trainers… tho ya know. That’s a distinct advantage to my privateer style of riding. I ship out to lessons, pay each trainer what they charge, and pay ring fees as appropriate. In return, they are expected to teach me to the fullest of their abilities during that session. What I do outside of that session is basically besides the point, realistically. Over time it becomes clear if one person’s approach isn’t meshing well with another’s, like if I’m getting exactly opposite style instruction that could be confusing to the horse (example- one trainer who wanted me to lift my hands vs another who wanted me to put them down lower). In my experience tho, most professionals are working toward the same fundamentals and are open minded about how their independent clients get there.
DeleteOh I love when things come together! I'm weirdly excited for you that your two trainers give such compatible lessons. Definitely sounds like Doozy is getting it... and you too!
ReplyDelete